Chairmen appointed to NRA and OfReg boards
(CNS): Mark Parchment, a local financial and development consultant, has been appointed as the National Roads Authority chairperson, and attorney Samuel Jackson is the new chairperson of the OfReg board. The NRA seat has been vacant since Gilbert McLean was appointed but declined to take up the job in February. Rudy Ebanks, the former OfReg chair, served less than two years, and it is not clear why he quit.
Parchment’s appointment by Cabinet comes at a time when the NRA is engaged in numerous projects in an effort to curb the growing congestion. The political appointment was gazetted on Friday, 2 June, and Parchment is due to serve until 30 May 2026. He takes over from Stanley Panton, who was acting chair for the last few months.
All NRA directors, including the chairperson, receive $150 for each meeting they attend, one the smaller stipends for directors on government boards. The NRA board usually meets at 10am every other Wednesday, or twice a month. According to the minutes, members sometimes meet via conference call.
Jackson, a local attorney known for his work on planning and development cases, ran for office in the 2021 general election and lost in a head-to-head fight with Sir Alden McLaughlin in Red Bay. He takes over as head of the Utility Regulation and Competition Office Board at a time when the regulator continues to come under fire for a host of reasons, not least for its failure to meet its basic functions.
Cabinet has also appointed several new directors to the OfReg board, according to Friday’s Extraordinary Gazette. In 2019 the auditor general revealed that OfReg directors are some of the best paid among these politically connected jobs. At that time, OfReg directors were making $4,500 per month. It appears from the online record of the minutes that they are currently meeting just once per month.
See the details of the Gazettes here (OfReg) and here (NRA).
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Government oversight, Private Sector Oversight
I found it amazing that no one comments on OfReg members being paid 15 times more per month than what NRA members are paid.
Guru for life Peter Goff says it’s a steal really.
Nothing will be done to stop them. When you can get away with legalized theft, why not? Haven’t you heard?….. Everybody’s
doing it, doing it, doing it! OfReg may be less than honest, but they ain’t stupid!
Thievery has no bounds. OfReg is our worst player.
It’s Sunday, so let’s have some fun (unless you’re not in the mood fighting with autocorrect all morning)
“The NRA was created to administer, manage, control, develop and maintain the Islands’s public roads and related facilities, such as signals, stormwater facilities, roadway lighting, roadway directional signage, etc.”
❓what Mark Parchment’s and attorney Samuel Jackson’ EXPERTISE in “administer [ing], manage, control, develop and maintain the Islands’s public roads and related facilities”.❓
Are they versed in DEVELOPING the Islands’s public roads and related facilities❓
The question of transport and roads development is a question of mathematics and geometry. These sciences do not care what your culture or climate is because these are objective indicators.
❓What are the 4 postulates proven by the world’s known mathematicians and economists in regards to the roads development?
This is not a multiple choice question, so I’m not giving the names of the mathematicians.
🔘You have 3 minutes to answer this question to qualify for the chair of Cayman NRA Board
🔺If it took you 30 min. to find the answers on internet, you might still qualify for you understand the question.
🔺If you didn’t know, but found the answers within 30 min.. AND understand it, you are also qualified.
For the rest of us who have no clue what this is all about, keep in mind that people who are also clueless about the FUNDAMENTALS of roads design and development are on the NRA board and designing, developing, administering, controlling The Islands Roads.
1. The Pigou-Knight-Downs paradox
2. Downs–Thomson paradox
3. Dietrich Braess’s paradox
4. Lewis-Mogridge postulates
🏆🥇
The NRA have a track record of making a complete balls up of junctions and negotiations and we have increasing speed and deaths on our roads. We need professionals in charge to make reasonable decisions and to improve legislation.
Rinse, wash, repeat
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Rudy Ebanks had to vacate his OfReg position due to ill health. He has been battling a serious health issue over the past year.
I hope positive changes are coming with these new people. Please make rational and educated decisions and act quickly.
Don’t hold your breath.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel for chairpersons now I see! What a mess!
So many young and talented Caymanians that would make good leaders
Isn’t Mr. Jackson the attorney for the CPA?
No relations!
Well I didn’t vote for them
What is the family relation to Paul Parchment former MD who was sacked for cause by NRA Board in 2018? Brother? Cousin? Why do these appointments always have to stink?
No family at all!!
What cause?
He used NRA resources for personal purposes.